Sociology is the study of society and people. Food and food ways are often elements associated with particular societies and therefore, studying such a topic can offer valuable insight into the ways of that society and the people who live in it. Although eating is a vital part of survival, with whom, how and where we eat are not. Studying such ways can illustrate and represent the identity of a person or group. The nature of people and their beliefs can be indicated when analysing their food habits. Who individuals eat with is a particularly revealing factor into gaining an understanding of their identity, culture and society (Scholliers P 2001). For this reason commensality is a term frequently used in sociological research concerning food and food ways. Commensality can be defined as the notion of eating with others. It is the act of two or more people consuming a meal together (Pearsall J 1999). The purpose of commensality is much more than that of allowing survival. It pushes beyond this and becomes a practice of socialisation. Anthropologist Martin Sahlins suggested that not only does it provide opportunities for people to integrate socially, but that it can be the starting factor and maintaining factor in which enables relationships to form and develop. For example, he found that at the beginning of relationship formation commensality tends to involve the sharing of drinks and snacks. As relationships develop the meals become more complex. He claimed that the traditional cooked dinner of meats and vegetables is one mainly shared among families and rarely with friends (Lupton 1996). This suggests that commensality is often used as an expression of closeness and the extent of such closeness can be discovered by looking at ... ... middle of paper ... ...ldhood in Food, the Body and the Self by SAGE publications in London, England Mail Online NEWS (2010) Eating dinner at the table is 'dying out', says survey [online] available assessed 13/02/2012 Pearsall J (1999) The Concise Oxford Dictionary Tenth Edition page 286 by Oxford University Press in Oxford New York, America Scholliers P (2001) Meals, Food Narratives and Sentiments of Belonging in Past and Present and Chapter Two Commensality and Social Morphology: An Essay of Typology Claude Grignon in Food, Drink and Identity Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since the middle Ages by Berg in New York, America Tapper T and Palfreyman D (2010) The Collegial Tradition in Higher Education in The Collegial Tradition in the Age of Mass Higher Education by Springer in United Kingdom
The meal, and more specifically the concept of the family meal, has traditional connotations of comfort and togetherness. As shown in three of Faulkner’s short stories in “The Country”, disruptions in the life of the family are often reinforced in the plot of the story by disruptions in the meal.
Pollan states that food is not just a necessity to survive, it has a greater meaning to life. Pollan explains how food can cause us happiness and health by connecting us to our family and culture. Warren Belasco, in “Why Study Food”, supports Pollan’s idea that food is something social and cultural. In Belasco’s description of a positive social encounter food is included, whether it involves a coffee date with a colleague or a dinner date with a loved one. Belasco states that food forms our identity and brings our society together.
Simpson, J. A., and E. S. C. Weiner. The Oxford English dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1989.Print.
Merriam Webster. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary of English. Ed. Frederick Mish. 11 th.
In The Hungry Soul we find an interesting blend of subjects, methods, and traditions. This book is a fascinating exploration of the cultural and natural act of eating. Kass intensely reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, restrictions, customs, and rituals surrounding it, relate to collective and philosophical truths about the human being and its deepest pleasures. Kass argues throughout the book that eating (dining) is something that can either cultivate us or moralize us. My question is, does Kass succeed in arguing for the fact that eating is something that can moralize us as human beings? Although I agree with some of the things that Kass discussed in the book, in this paper I will argue mainly against some of his claims.
Time had effects on the social aspects of food choice and the proportion of food eaten. At lunch hour’s people ate more than later on in the evening.
In Lavanya Ramanathan’s Washington Post article published in 2015 titled “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’”, she discusses about people’s preconceptions on the type of food that should be labelled ethnic. Ashlie Stevens also touched on a similar topic in her Guardian article published in 2015 titled “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes culture”. She talks about how people assume that just by eating food from a certain culture, they are able relate to the culture as a whole. Both authors acknowledge the importance of appreciating authentic cuisines, but takes different approaches to convince the audience. Both authors establish credibility by using a wide range of substantiated evidences. While,
In Michael Pollan’s “The End of Cooking” shares the message of what we are losing something important in this day and age because of all our pre-made and processed foods. This can be compared with Kothari’s “If You Are What You Eat, What Am I?” and her argument that food is part of one’s own identity. By using the examples from these two texts you can analyze the state of food and culture in the United States today. All of the processed and pre-made foods are causing people all across America to lose their sense of Culture. We no longer know what it’s like to make one of our cultures specialty dishes from scratch which can help people identify with their culture. This process helped newer generations see what it was like for those before them to cook on a daily basis and could help them identify your sense of culture.
It could be argued that every nation and every ethnic group has its own soul food. But the contemporary connotation of the term "soul food" refers to the gradual blending and developing o...
Food and eating are two key social and cultural identity indicators that bring people of the same culture closer together. Food and eating are viewed as cultural and social symbols, and deviating from these norms may be harmful to an outsider’s ability to fit in (Crouch & O’Neill, 2000, pp. 182-183; Cornejo Happel, 2012, pp. 175-176). For example, Buddy drinks Coca-Cola directly from the bottle, instead of asking for a glass, which is seen as inappropriate by the family (Berg et al., 2003, 44:01). When Buddy joins Walter’s family for dinner, Buddy asks for maple syrup to put on his meal; the family is taken aback because, in their culture, it is atypical for maple syrup to be put onto spaghetti (44:16). This is normal for Buddy and those of the Elf culture, who believe that “the four main food groups [are] candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup” (44:40). This is seen as strange and repulsive to Americans who, albeit consume sugary foods, try to consume a more balanced diet. Food norms are important to follow in order to fit into a new culture. Even where shared foods across cultures exist, there are often norms around how and when to consume these foods (Cornejo Happel, 2012, pp. 175-176). Instead of bonding over shared food products like maple syrup or Coca-Cola, Buddy alienates himself from his family by the ways in which he consumes these foods. Through adaptation and acculturation, one’s food preferences may change and thus one’s identity may shift (Ishak, Zahari & Othman, 2013, pp. 439-440). If Buddy were to adapt to the local food customs, he may find it easier to fit in with his family and those around
In her book Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz describes the wide use of food as signs, and also as social codes. The reason foods are so useful as signs and social codes is because they are separable, easily adaptive to new environments, and it is not difficult to cook, or eat for that matter. Food is a major part of our daily lives, Not only for survival, but it plays a substantial social role in our lives. We will look deeper into the semiotics of food, how food is used as identity markers, and also the role that foods play in social change in our lives. First let us start with the semiotics of food.
Food is profoundly in American’s culture it is like a social essential necessity. America has a mixture of different ethnicities and although they may have their own food everyone eats similar foods and if one does not it will set a social barrier. Food can be for gift giving, simple generosity or even in exchange for something. Usually, food is shared and many tend to sit together at a specific mealtime it may vary from friends, parents, children or visitors or, strangers, new people. In an occasion like this it somehow becomes a symbol of love as they all come together into an eating event. Aside from just love, there ...
The story of an individual’s food history ties in with a bigger picture of what is happening in a society and globally. Viewing the diet of a family from a sociological perspective shows the history of a culture and the social development of the world. The food consumed from wealthy first class people living in first world countries is drastically different from the food consumed by poor people living in developing countries.
Eating behaviour is a complex behaviour that involves a vast array of factors which has a great impact on the way we choose our meals. Food choice, like an other behaviour, is influenced by several interrelated factors. While hunger seems to drive our ways of food consumption, there are things outside of our own bodies that influence our food choices and the way in which we eat. The way we eat is controlled by and is a reflection of our society and cultures. I explore this idea through a food diary I created over a few weeks and the observations made by several anthropologists that I have studied.
Why should our family eat together? - Family Health. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from